


Like The Man Said: In Person

by BookofOdym



Category: DCU, DCU (Comics), Justice League International (Comics)
Genre: Coming Out, Crack Treated Seriously, Fluff and Crack, Grandpa Alan Scott, Internalized Homophobia, M/M, The Superhero Community Are All Friends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-19
Updated: 2020-08-19
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:00:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25997152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BookofOdym/pseuds/BookofOdym
Summary: Booster and Beetle have hooked up and are officially in a relationship, only when they finally tell people no one believes them because of the years of pranks.
Relationships: Carter Hall/Ray Palmer, Michael Carter/Ted Kord
Comments: 3
Kudos: 48





	Like The Man Said: In Person

**Author's Note:**

> Technically this fic is set at no time in particular, and yet at all times at once. Hawkman Vol 4 is directly referenced though so uhhh...

Booster woke up early, right when the sun first rose over the horizon. It wasn’t that he was a morning person, or that he had something particularly important to do that day, it was just that he wanted to be the first one up. Ted tended to be up first; he would leave Booster in a rapidly cooling bed with nothing more than a note and coffee on the pot to comfort him. 

Today, Booster was going to enjoy having a bedmate, and enjoy it he did. Ted shifted in his sleep, snuggling up into Booster’s chest. He looked adorable... right up until the moment he started drooling, that was. 

“Ick, do you have to?” He yelped, quickly wiping off the saliva. 

“Hnmormnnn” Ted replied, releasing even more drool onto Booster in the process. Ten more minutes, it sounded like. 

“You can have another hour, don’t worry about it,” he told the other man, a soft smile drifting onto his face. 

Ted wrapped one arm around him, and he murmured something that sounded vaguely like: “I love you,” and suddenly, Booster didn’t even mind the drooling. 

“Are you sure you’re okay with telling the others?” Booster found himself asking, he wanted to, but he knew Ted had had a lot of issues with his sexuality in the past. 

“I thought you said I could have another hour?” Ted said accusingly, snapping one eye open. He paused, waiting for Booster to finish mimicking him, then he sighed. “Well, we can’t exactly keep on sleeping with each other behind their backs, they’re our friends, we should tell them.” 

“Aw, look at you, finally embracing the spirit of friendship.” Booster had never been prouder. 

“And at the very least, it’ll keep Max from trying to set me up with his secretary.” 

* * *

Except, somehow, it was much harder than either of them had anticipated, mostly because no one believed them. 

“Pull the other one, it’s got bells on,” Dmitri had said. Apparently, he’d learned that from some American cartoon, his  favorite form of media in existence. He then completely failed to respond to Booster and Beetle’s offended shouts, preferring to turn the TV to a rerun of the Flintstones. 

“What are you two doing?” Bea glared at them from the stairway. “It’s six in the morning, people are trying to sleep.” 

“Bea!” Ted rushed towards her, effortlessly dodging the old towel she pitched at his head in an effort to shut him up. “We just wanted to tell everyone, Booster and I are dating.” 

“Hah,” She said, her eyes colder than they’d ever seen them, “because dating another man is such a great joke. It’s not 2006 anymore, Beetle, grow up.” 

Ted... looked like he was about to cry, which Booster was kind of used to by now, given that this was the man who had cried when they repossessed his CD player. The blond stepped forward, laying a comforting hand on his shoulder. 

“She didn’t... believe me?” Ted said in a small voice. 

“Yeah. I think I see the problem.” 

The problem was that after years of jokes, pulling pranks, and generally getting upset at even the insinuation that they might be dating, everyone was going to assume that this was just another joke. 

“It’s really hypocritical of her, don’t you think,” Booster grumbled, “for years, she is the one making all the gay jokes, but the moment she thinks we’re doing it about ourselves, suddenly it’s a problem.” 

“I can’t believe this,” Ted groaned, someone has to believe us. He pulled out his phone, dialing a number. “Ray, I’m dating Booster!” He shouted, before exchanging any kind of greeting. 

The voice that growled: “What the fuck are you doing calling this early in the morning?” wasn’t Ray Palmer’s, it was Carter Hall’s. 

“Did you just say ‘fuck’? Aquaman would never say fuck,” Ted tried to respond, but Hawkman had already slammed the phone down. 

“Sooo,” Booster drawled, from where he was leaning against the wall, “those two are definitely banging.” 

It was a weird thought. Ted wondered what it was like, to date someone who you knew had another soulmate (even though she had died and been reincarnated into someone who wasn’t interested in dating Carter), who probably wouldn’t even spare you a second thought in their next life. “I think I just depressed myself. There has to be someone who believes us.” 

* * *

“Okay, Will, I’m glad I interrupted your robot... sneaking into your bed, maybe you should put a lock on your door. Oh? She broke it? Well, have a good day.” Ted looked worried as he hung up the phone. “I think maybe I should call the police.” 

“On Will Magnus’ sexy robot chick?” Booster asked. “They’d never do anything about her. You okay? You didn’t tell him.” 

“Maybe because something very concerning is going on over there! Maybe we should-” 

* * *

After a quick trip to Magnus Labs, they returned to operation ‘call everyone in the superhero community’, only to be yelled at or hung up on by most of them. 

Booster threw back his head and groaned. “We’ve called every single person we know, from Alan Scott to Zatanna, and none of them believed us.” 

Ted got a very strange expression on his face. 

“What?” Booster asked. 

“We didn’t call Alan.” 

“And thank God for that,” Max said from the doorway, “hello boys, mind telling me why I’ve received a dozen complaints about annoying phone calls from our allies?” 

“No one believes I’m dating Ted!” Booster shouted, pointing at exactly nothing. Meanwhile, Ted was completely divorced from the conversation, as he desperately tried to remember Alan Scott’s phone number. 

Max snatched the phone out of his hands. “Leave the old man alone!” He shouted, already halfway towards the door. “He’s busy, and he doesn’t want to be dragged into your latest prank!”

“Evil!” Booster shouted after him. “Evil man! You’ve made Beetle cry!”

“I’ll do a lot worse if the two of you don’t buckle down and take things seriously!”

* * *

Alan Scott was surprised to walk into his office that morning, only to find much younger businessman Ted Kord already there waiting for him. Alan felt a rush of concern, mostly because the rims of Ted’s eyes were red with tears.

“Kord?” He asked, walking across the room to lay a hand on the man’s shoulder.

“I-” the young man broke off before he could start his sentence, “I’m dating Booster.”

Alan was about ready to toss Kord out on his ass.

“I’m bi, but Dad was always...” he trailed off, “I had my reasons to not tell anyone. But now everyone thinks it’s a stupid prank, and- and-”

Kord swallowed.

“I think we might be in a similar situation, Mr Scott.”

Alan stood stock still for a long moment. “You’re far smarter than you have any right to be, Mr Kord.”

It had only been recently that Alan had been able to come to terms with his own sexuality, he understood perfectly, the problem of having to tell people when you’d known them for decades.

“I think the first thing you did wrong was calling them by phone, you seem perfectly sincere in person.”

* * *

Booster decided to take that advice to mean that they should make out in front of the whole League. Ted only had a few complaints.


End file.
